The PFA Player Of The Year Shortlists Are A Joke

If today’s PFA Player of the Year shortlist shows us anything, announcing the player of the year with almost 6 weeks of the season left looks a stupid decision. With only Steven Gerrard not from Manchester United on the six player shortlist, it just shows how quickly things in football can change. What if Frank Lampards goals fire Chelsea to a treble this season? What if Arsenal win the Champions League? Could Manchester United miss out on the Premiership, F.A. Cup and Champions League yet have a player win the PFA award?

Has Edwin Van Der Saar really been the best Premiership goalkeeper this season? Surely Mark Schwarzer’s contribution for Fulham has been more important between the sticks, as perhaps Shay Given at Newcastle and Manchester City this season can claim too. Manchester United could play a snowman in goal sometimes and no-one would notice.

Liverpool have now only got one chance of silverware after Wednesdays classic Champions League Quarter Final say Chelsea edge them out, with Lampard once again dragging the Blues through. Lampard has now scored 19 goals in all competitions, 2 less than Gerrard and Ronaldo but has set up more goals for his team mates than those two put together.Ferdinand has been superb all season, Vidic has seen his form drift away since February.

I don’t understand why the PFA awards have to be announced so soon and the voting to be concluded before all the major trophies are handed out. Last season, it was obvious that Ronaldo was head and shoulders ahead of anyone else, won all the domestic player awards and then failed to deliver once again for Portugal, spent all Summer flirting with Real Madrid and then missed the beginning of the season through injury and still won the World Player of The Year Award.

This year, there is no stand out candidate, but for Lampard to be omitted is beyond a joke. During the final weeks of Scolari’s reign at Stamford Bridge, Lampard carried them single handed it seemed to try and keep them in as many competitions as possible, showing guts and determination throughout the chaos that seemed to be going on all around him. Are professional players that daft that they couldn’t see that?

The Young Player of the Year award seems even more ludicrous, only 3 of the candidates have truly played well all season. Ireland, Rafael and Lennon have been head and shoulders above the other 3 candidates, with Ireland being the stand out nomination. Of the other 3, Agbonlahor has scored 3 goals since Christmas, has Jonny Evans been that good all season and Ashley Young has been so inconsistent as to be almost laughable to be included in the final six.

How two Aston Villa players could be included when they’ve won 3 games out of their last 15 matches makes me think that the nominations must have been done on New Years Eve because Villa have fallen away so far and are in danger of finishing 6th when they had a good chance of finishing 3rd. Are there so few young players kicking around? Where’s Jack Rodwell? Mark Noble and Jack Collinson from West Ham have both had excellent seasons yet don’t feature at all.

Hopefully Ferdinand and Ireland will win the awards, but the nominations themselves just don’t make any sense at all. It’s time to move them to the end of the season when it actually matters.

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10 Comments

toddApril 16, 2009

what an incredibly original article. ive heard this over and over everywhere since it was announced. three things:

1) its the players opinion, so no blogger logic need apply. every award and poll is the opinion of those who vote and the result is always correct, even if people disagree. disputing this is pointless.

2) at one point in time, people couldnt wait to give 5 trophies to united and make vidic player of the year. of course things can change, but the same reactionary mentality people are criticizing, is to blame for people thinking players like VDS, Ronaldo and Vidic were not viable choices at the time of voting. VDS’s record speaks for itself, at the time ronaldo was the leading scorer in the prem or close to it, and was the current world player of the year..if you thought he was being left off you are insane, even with missing the beginning of the season. and lastly, vidic was being tipped for possible WPOY honors throughout. sure, some great players were left off.. but man uniteds success throughout this season, and at this time, they were far and away the best team with the best players. comparatively, torres means more to liverpool than vidic does to united. but thats not what this award is honoring.

3) you said it yourself “I don’t understand why the PFA awards have to be announced so soon”. so then why write an article about something you dont understand. get the facts or dont write an article. i dont know why either, but im not writing an article criticising it. it would be a scoop if you explained the logic. but since you dont research who is voting, the criteria they use, the reasoning for the time period, what time period the award is set to represent etc etc… i wouldnt expect much.

sorry to be harsh, but you jumped on the wagon late and did a poor job of repeating views heard and read by most readers of this blog for days.

The candidates are picked by players that are part of the PFA so your talking about actual professionals who play against each other voting for each other. I’d hardly say they have a lack of knowledge in regards to football.

All the candidates on the list are valid. These awards are designed to promote players that have been a part of the drive their team has possessed throughout the season to take them to the height their at.

Rio Ferdinand, Vidic and Edwin Van Der Sar are responsible for breaking the record this season so their on the list without a doubt.

Ronaldo… well a man who plays in midfield yet accumulates 21 goals in a season where he is not at his best is making the list without a shadow of doubt. I mean honestly who didn’t see this coming.

I really don’t see what your fussing about first the whole thing is based on the OPINIONS of well qualified professionals in the sport and the list points out the most successful club in general and the players who helped put it there.

PAWRUSH (lets have MIROSLAV STOCH and JOE COLE in there too)April 17, 2009

The players vote for their best players in Feb- Mar, so what do you expect to happen…

I agree that Mark Schwarzer’s contribution for Fulham and Lampard’s 19 goals and 12 assists should also throw him into contention! But what about Phil Jagielka for everton and Hangeland for Fulham.

In the young players shouldn’t we also see Fellaini winning??? He has all but kept Everton in with a shout of a top 6 finish. He has been the constant in the team where Tim Cahill for the first 3 months and Arteta since have been struck with injury.

Don’t forget Kevin Davies who has 12 premier league goals and has stirred his side clear off the relegation battle almost single handedly.

Evans hasn’t played many games and neither has Rafael to deserve to be in those shortlists!!! If this wasn’t one of the biggest awards in England it wuold have been much finnier

i completely disagree with van der sar being included in the player of the year awards, the only possible reason for this is that manchester united got the record for clean sheets, it is often talked about as van der sars award and not the team, or defenders, in that run, one could not see a fantastic save to cement his superiorority, all that could be seen was fantastic defending, so i think that it is right for the manchester united defenders to be given a mention, the only possible reason why i can think of lampard not being included is the fact that he plays for Chelsea, which is one of the most hated teams in England, which i believe to be descriminative and imoral

How you think Lennon has had a better season than Young is bizarre. Lennon barely played before the new year and has had about 3 good games all season and all coming recently. Him being nominated is a bit of a suprise. Young has outscored him and has many more assists, I think Young has the most assists of all the wingers in the league. He should win the award and most pundits have said the same, although Ireland has been top class and would be equally deserving.
Gerrard should win but Giggsy could be in with a shout because of the stuff he’s done over the years but it is a season award so they shouldn’t be swung by previous achievements. Lampard not being involved is a disgrace as he as usual has been very consistent.